In order to write, the playwright receives a special wheelchair that ensures that his arm becomes weightless. With the help of a special ring with a wooden pin, he manages to continue. “Writing is like playing checkers. With one line you already know what you are going to say about five other lines. But it didn’t go that smoothly. In the beginning it took me three hours to write a single sentence.”
Slowly but surely, Van der A regains his motor skills, but he is told that he will probably be in a wheelchair around the age of 50. But that never came. However, crutches are needed to get around.
In any case, it did not stop Van der A. In 1994 he bought a farm in Roswinkel and transformed it into De Noorderbak, a small theater in Drenthe that offered him a nice space to perform his own work. He ran this theater for about 20 years. “I did all that without subsidies,” he adds. It enabled Van der A to make a living from his work, a rare feat.
After almost forty years, Van der A is still active. One thing has remained the same in all this time. Whatever scenario or character he came up with, regional language and dialect always played the leading role. “No, I am not a writer from Drenthe, but a writer from Lower Saxony.” That description fits better with Van der A’s ‘roots’, a self-declared borderline case.
For a large part of his life he lived just 25 meters from the border between Drenthe and Groningen. “And in that region the peat colonial dialect prevails, which is a cross between Drenthe and Grunnings.”
When you talk about Low Saxon, you also talk about Overijssel and Gelderland, for example. There is still an active association life, especially in the first province. “In every village you still have two or three theater clubs. Unfortunately, a lot has disappeared in Drenthe, but that is not the case there.” According to him, Van der A’s work is regularly performed there. Van der A himself has founded a theater club, against the trend. “We are lucky that we have some young girls. You can’t make it with only people over 85 as members.”
In addition to the regional identity, humor also predominates in his work. “No underwear fun, mind you. I’m going for humor a la Finklers. Laughter is just very important. Especially in these times. People go out for a nice evening. Just clear your mind and see what happens!”
In the meantime, inspiration refuses to budge. Van der A’s next pen is already well underway. The recently completed residential courtyard Knarrenhof in the Emmermeer district gave him an idea. “My story is a bit more grouchy. It will be more of a Knorrenhof. Man, I can write another twenty pieces like that. It is inexhaustible for me.”